Unseemly happenings on the Foothills Trail?

My wife periodically will do her 5 mile run on the Foothills trail starting in Puyallup. There are several wooded areas that border the trail and twice now she has mentioned seeing men entering those areas on bikes not kids either and I am pretty sure there are no tracks for mountain biking since it is a flat area and lots of blackberry bushes and what not. There are folks that patrol the trail but this time if year I don't know if they are there every day. I'm just wondering how to go about getting someone with a bit of clout to investigate be it the Sheriff or might be the Puyallup PD not sure. Good be some drug activity or homeless folks setting up camp, not sure but it may be even more unseemly perhaps similiar to what was going on at Wildwood park on Southhill a few years ago. I worry her with some of the sickos out there even though she carries mace she is a very petite woman. Any ideas?

There is a lot of traffic normally on that trail and she saw several other women joggers but I work and she is retired and likes to get her run before I get home and besides if I told her not to she would just do it anyway.

Could be something evil and nefarious, but it could just be that those men have been enjoying long rides on their bikes, and are ducking into the bushes to pee away from the sight of people on the trail.

This is an expensive option and probably overkill, but it may give you some peace of mind. There's a device called an inReach, it's a GPS tracker with an SOS button and has the capability to send text messages even from places with no cellular signal. The reason I mention it is that if your wife carried one while she jogged, you could see where she is on a map at any moment; if she wound up not coming home you could see where she was at that moment and what route she took to get there. Personally, I think I'd just take a different trail though.

Not much of a problem when the weather is nice like it was today. She tells me these guys looked like they may be homeless types so its probably a homeless camp in there hidden but she does have bear spray she carries always ready.

wait just a minute ... she is isolated and far from help, far from anyone hearing her screams. she's attacked and uses pepper spray. if she's attacked by more than one person, then what she gets to spray 1 guy while she is mangled by another guy? even then if she somehow survives how bad will her injuries be and how will she get home. what if she is limping, or worse. seriously think about the actual attack in which pepper spray is used. it's not like she is on a city street and can scream for help and run to a nearby business or intersection, etc. does she also carry a whistle. a whistle allows you to signal if you lose your voice for some reason.

cycling is like baseball ~ it doesn't take much to make it interesting

wait just a minute ... she is isolated and far from help, far from anyone hearing her screams. she's attacked and uses pepper spray. if she's attacked by more than one person, then what she gets to spray 1 guy while she is mangled by another guy? even then if she somehow survives how bad will her injuries be and how will she get home. what if she is limping, or worse. seriously think about the actual attack in which pepper spray is used. it's not like she is on a city street and can scream for help and run to a nearby business or intersection, etc. does she also carry a whistle. a whistle allows you to signal if you lose your voice for some reason.

She has been running this trail for about 5 years and never has had any problems, on nice days there are a lot of folks on the trail. and a lot of houses around for the most part. Naturally things can happen even on the city streets and nobody sees anything. I think I will have a nice sensible talk with her about being on there during crappy weather (that is when she has seen these guys) the whistle idea is a good one for sure. We are going to get some pepper spray and maybe a tazer too. Best bet she runs on the days when its not so crappy and there are more people on the trail.

My Mom ran her usual area for 10 years safely, until the day she was attacked and dragged on hands and knees by her hair into an alley. Don't let your wife be lulled into a feeling of safety based on past experience in the area. You truly never know. She needs to be aware of her surroundings and make adjustments as necessary to avoid danger. She also needs to have the ability to protect herself, should she be confronted by an ill-intended person.

I have been riding the length of the foothills trail regularly for about the past year. I haven't noticed any camps along the trail east of Orting. I have seen several camps along the wooded area north of Orting just north and south of 96th ST E. For the most part all I have noticed is they are homeless camps which unfortunately are in almost in every wooded area south of Seattle.

The bottom line is safety. If it is truly suspicious, file a complaint (there may be others) with police and avoid the area for a period of time. Maybe you save someone else a problem/tragedy. I'm not a gun advocate, but a vulnerable, solo female who insists on running in a place she feels uncomfortable should probably carry the mace AND a gun (w/ cc permit).

It's important that your wife do what she needs to feel safe. And also to trust her instincts on this. She noticed a lot of things that probably didn't seem important enough to list out, but that all added up to an impression she felt about the situation. Humans are very good at reading subtle cues.

But it's also important to not let fear get in the way of living her life. The media loves to hype death and destruction to get ratings, and it gives people a distorted and dim view of other people. There are some bad apples out there but in the grand scheme of things random violence is pretty rare in modern life.

I would personally go with a small can of bear spray and a Delorme inReach if it were me, and then continue enjoying the trail, or possibly find a different trail.

Someone back at home can open a web page (if you've given them permission) and find out where you are currently and what route you took to get there. Loved ones can "ping" you and get your current location, anywhere on Earth. You can send and receive text messages without cell coverage which probably doesn't help in this situation. And it has an SOS button which brings the cavalry to rescue you.

These are made for hikers and climbers who spend a lot of time in remote wilderness areas, and for boaters.

I bring it up here because Stringbreaker can use it to monitor his wife's progress on the trail from home or work. If she were attacked or kidnapped, he'd be able to see that from her breadcrumb trail on the map. She could probably get a pretty quick police response with a touch of the panic button, too, as opposed to calling 911 and explaining what the problem is.

Someone back at home can open a web page (if you've given them permission) and find out where you are currently and what route you took to get there. Loved ones can "ping" you and get your current location, anywhere on Earth. You can send and receive text messages without cell coverage which probably doesn't help in this situation. And it has an SOS button which brings the cavalry to rescue you.

These are made for hikers and climbers who spend a lot of time in remote wilderness areas, and for boaters.

I bring it up here because Stringbreaker can use it to monitor his wife's progress on the trail from home or work. If she were attacked or kidnapped, he'd be able to see that from her breadcrumb trail on the map. She could probably get a pretty quick police response with a touch of the panic button, too, as opposed to calling 911 and explaining what the problem is.

Looks pretty good. Wonder about the negative reviews if they just didn't know how to use the thing properly or as the one guy said it could have been the terrain, he was in canyons and what not. Wouldn't have to worry about that in this case.